By Josh Troy, Clarksdale Advocate
09/08/2023
Clarksdale High School’s comeback effort, when trailing by 17 points in the fourth quarter, came up just short in Week 3. The Wildcats (1-2) lost at home to Charleston 20-17. After trailing 20-3, Clarksdale scored two touchdowns in about two minutes, cutting Charleston’s lead to 20-17 with 7:13 remaining in the fourth quarter. Junior D’Mario Stapleton threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to junior Raheem McClenton, and a 50-yard touchdown run followed. The Wildcats stopped Charleston on a fourth-down play with 2:20 remaining in the contest but failed on a fourth-down conversion attempt with a little more than a minute to play.
“They fought well, and they fought hard, and I appreciate them doing that for me,” said Clarksdale coach Curtis Kemp Jr. “They showed some signs of competitiveness. They wanted to compete a little bit. That was always good seeing your team try to fight back.”
Kemp took responsibility after the loss. “It’s my fault,” he said. “It’s hard to say with kids not doing it. Me being an adult, I’ve just got to blame it on me being the coach. That’s all. I’ve got to get us better.”
